A rally has been scheduled for 8 a.m. this Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Hoquiam Airport to highlight the departure of several members of the Quinault Indian Nation Tribal Council, whose plane will take off at 9 a.m. for Standing Rock Encampment in North Dakota.

“This two-day trip was purposely scheduled for these dates for good reasons,” said Quinault Nation President Fawn Sharp in a news release on Friday. “We scheduled it in part because our offices will be closed on December 5, our day to honor the memory of our late, great Quinault leader Joe DeLaCruz. We feel that makes it particularly meaningful for our Council to go there now and show our support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all the thousands of water protectors who have made it clear that they will not be moved,” she said. “As it turns out, it is also the day the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers set for the water protectors at the camp to be evicted.”

DeLaCruz was President of Quinault Nation from 1967 to 1993.

“The people of Standing Rock knew Joe DeLaCruz, and they respect his memory. We are going to this historic place to exercise our sovereignty by taking direct and decisive action in support of Standing Rock and to celebrate all that President DeLaCruz stood for,” Sharp said.

Native Americans and activists from around the country have been gathering at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota for several months trying to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The proposed 1,172 mile long pipeline would transport oil from the North Dakota Bakken region through South Dakota, Iowa and into Illinois.

The Quinault Nation previously had sent its “Grandfather Canoe” (nuWchi?ten lūKi11) with a crew to take part in a 30-mile canoe journey on the Missouri River in early October. In November, the Council took unanimous action to establish and staff a winter camp there.

“We have consistently supported the Standing Rock effort and we will continue to do so,” said President Sharp. “We realize this country will continue to need oil for years to come. But priority must be placed on the protection of natural resources, treaty rights, cultural resources and the pursuit of clean energy. Water is sacred, water is life.”

“We have tremendous respect for the water protectors. We relate with them because we’ve been fighting to keep Bakken oil from spoiling our area for years, and we know many people in the Grays Harbor area agree with us. So we invite them to come on out to the airport and see us off,” she said.

The Quinault delegation will offer a sunrise prayer and song at daybreak on the morning of Joe DeLaCruz Day at which time they will present gifts of honor, gratitude, and support to the Standing Rock people.

“I find it interesting that the Corps of Engineers set December 5 as the eviction date for the water protectors because it also happens to be the birth date of George Armstrong Custer,”Sharp noted in the news release. “No one has the right to evict tribes from their sacred lands. Custer didn’t have the right in 1876, and the Army Corps doesn’t have the right today.”

Aboard the flight will be President Fawn Sharp, Vice President Tyson Johnston, Council Secretary Latosha Underwood, Councilwoman Clarinda “Pies” Underwood, Councilman Thomas Obi, Tribal drummer and singer Micah Masten and Quinault Public Relations Coordinator Steve Robinson.